“I should hardly suppose so. They may be lost in the woods; but, in that case, each one is capable of finding his way to Rainbow Lake, and thence to Pioneer Camp. However, if we don’t see them or receive any message from them before we start, I’ll send out a search-party, and we’ll make the trip home on foot, to see if we can find them.”
CHAPTER X.
AROUND THE COUNCIL-FIRE.
A misfortune had indeed overtaken Alec and Hugh soon after they had turned the tide in favor of the Blue Army.
In descending from a ledge of rock that overhung the valley to a lower level where a path wound along the side of the hill, Alec, carrying his flags in one hand, and clinging to saplings that grew in the crevices of the rock with the other, slipped and fell, barely saving himself from tumbling headlong over the cliff.
When he attempted to rise, an excruciating stab of pain in his left ankle gave warning of a bad sprain.
“I’ve twisted my ankle, Hugh,” he said ruefully, gazing up where Hugh knelt on the ledge above him. “I can’t bear my weight on it just now.”
He spoke lightly, but there was a catch in his voice.
Admiring his pluck, Hugh looked at him with an expression of deep concern.
“Wait a second, Alec. I’ll help you up out of that little ravine you’ve fallen into. Jingo! I thought you would surely slide over the edge when I saw you fall! I was so thankful that you had the sense to stop short!”
“Were you?”
“You bet I was!” While he was speaking, Hugh was lowering himself cautiously down from the ledge, and creeping along until he stood beside Alec. “At last! Are you badly hurt? Let’s see your ankle. Why, it’s beginning to swell already! Here, let me take off your heavy shoe.”
“If you do, I’ll never be able to get it on again! As things are now, I don’t see how I’m going to get down to Oakvale. And as for getting back to Pioneer Camp!—it seems to be at the other end of nowhere, so far away!”
“Don’t despair. As a matter of fact, I believe our camp is nearer this spot than Oakvale is. What do you say, Alec, to trying to make our way back to Rainbow Lake? I remember Joe left an old canoe there, and we can paddle across and then find the trail back to camp.”
“Go ahead,” responded Alec. “Sorry I can’t go with you.”
“Oh, yes, you can. And you’re coming with me, too.”
“I tell you I can’t walk! This darned ankle hurts like sin! It may be broken, for all I know.”
“I can tell in a moment,” said Hugh, reassuringly, and with no touch of boasting.
While he carefully felt the injured member, Alec was suddenly reminded of a remark of his own, a sneer at Hugh’s qualifications in first-aid. “At my expense,” Alec had said, and now here was Hugh turning his knowledge to Alec’s benefit, very modestly and simply, quite as a matter of course!
“No bones broken,” announced Hugh, “but you must let me bind it up with a handkerchief soaked in cold water, and then put on one of my sneakers. Then we’ll start for camp, before it gets any worse.”
Alec plucked up a little more courage at this.
“If I could only get up out of this ravine,” he said, glancing around him in search of foothold, “I might——”
“I’m going to carry you,” said Hugh quietly. But first he followed his own directions for binding Alec’s ankle firmly.
“Now!” he exclaimed, when that was done to his satisfaction and to Alec’s relief, “I’m going to get you out of here. Just drape yourself across my right shoulder, will you, and let your legs hang down in front so that I——”
“But, Hugh, you’ll never be able to haul me up out of this! I weigh as much as you do, though I’m not quite so tall!”
“You’ll see. Please do just as I tell you, and let’s not waste any more time about it.” To his own surprise, Alec obeyed. Hugh knelt on the ground while Alec slid forward over his shoulder, throwing his right arm back over Hugh’s left shoulder. Then Hugh passed his right arm between Alec’s legs, seizing Alec’s right hand; then, shifting his burden a little, he rose slowly. In this manner he staggered up the sloping sides of the ravine, and reached level ground and the path.
“Pretty tough on you!” he ejaculated, breathing hard, as he placed Alec gently on the ground. “How much farther do you think you can stand it.”
“Look here, Hugh,” cried Alec, “what are you thinking of? You can’t carry me any farther. I won’t have it! I’ll be ever so much obliged to you if you’ll break off that branch of ash over there,—the one with a long knob at one end of it,—so that I can use it for a crutch,—and then please make tracks toward Pioneer Camp as fast as you can.”
“And leave you here alone? Not much! What do you think I am?”
“There’s no danger, Hugh. Besides, the sooner you get to camp and send Joe and a search-party out after me, the sooner I’ll get there, too.”
Hugh shook his head decisively.
“Sorry, but I won’t do that. But, speaking of search-parties, why can’t we signal to the National Guard camp and ask them to send one? Where are the flags?”
“They dropped out of my hand and fell over the cliff,” replied Alec.
“Too bad! Well, it can’t be helped.” Hugh broke off the branch Alec had pointed out, whittled it smooth, and gave it to his companion. “There you are! Now, do you think we can stagger on?”
“I guess so. I’ll try, anyway.”
Together, they did stagger on, Hugh assisting Alec over the rough places, or going before him to sweep aside the entangling vines and brakes and low-hanging boughs that obstructed their path. The sun and their little pocket compasses were their guides through the mazes of the forest, and the fact that they were never hopelessly lost was proof that they were good woodsmen.
Time and time again, during that long, tedious, wearisome, painful journey, Alec urged Hugh not to wait for him but to go ahead and return for him with friends from camp. Finally, seeing that Alec was in great distress, Hugh resolved to comply with this wish.
“I will leave you just as soon as we come to Rainbow Lake, if you insist,” he promised reluctantly. “But if you are attacked by any wild animal, or if you should trip and have another bad fall, I’m not responsible.”
As it happened, they had followed an old Indian trail through the woods, one which led them to the northern end of Rainbow Lake in less time than they had counted on. This trail must have saved them at least four miles and twice as many hours.
But twilight had begun to fold in the hills and to creep across the surface of the lake like a veil, when they at last stood upon its shore. It was too late to go to Pioneer Camp that night, even had the canoe been on hand for Hugh to use, instead of lying beached on the bare pebbly shingle at the other end of the lake.
“We’ll have to camp out again to-night, here,” said Hugh. “Have you any matches to light a fire with, Alec?”
“No, but I always carry my fire-stick, drill, and bow with me. You get some good tinder, Hugh, and I’ll make a fire in two shakes.”
In a few minutes Hugh returned with a handful of pounded cedar wood, dry and sweet-smelling, and while he went to try and gather a few berries for their supper, Alec prepared to start the fire. First he gave a few strokes with the drill, then rearranged the tiny sticks he had placed over the tinder, and tried a few more strokes. No success. He gave half a dozen deft twirls to the drill—the smoke burst forth. He covered it with the tinder, fanned it a few seconds, and then a bright flame arose, just as Hugh returned with his cap full of luscious blackberries.
The berries were all they had to eat that night, but both youths were so tired they did not complain. Long before actual night had fallen, they were sound asleep, wrapped in their blankets, side by side.
And still Alec had said nothing, as yet, about the rebuke which Joe, the half breed, had given him. Time enough for that, when they were safe at Pioneer Camp once more.
The next morning Hugh went in quest of the canoe, which he secured after considerable delay. Then he paddled back to the place where Alec awaited him, and soon the pair were gliding swiftly over Rainbow Lake and down the brawling stream which connected it with Pioneer Lake.
When at last they burst upon the waters of the larger lake and sent a yell of joy echoing across it, their cry was answered by another yell from camp, and soon the shore and the pier and the raft were crowded with eager friends waiting to welcome them.
Around the council-fire that evening sat the entire troop, for the leader of the signal corps was to be elected, after the reports of the hike had been read.
Alec, pale as a ghost, had sought Hugh after mess, and told him all he had tried to do to thwart his rival and to deprive him of the chance for leadership. It was bitterly hard to make that confession, but, in spite of his faults, Alec Sands “came up to the scratch” in the final test, and acquitted himself by telling the truth.
“I’m heartily ashamed of my actions and my thoughts concerning you, Hugh,” he said, in a low, shaky voice. “In the future, after your kindness to me yesterday, I’ll be all the more ashamed, and sorry, too.”
“Well, I’m sure I don’t want you to remember anything unpleasant between us!” laughed Hugh. “Let’s forget it, Alec, and be friends!”
They shook hands upon that compact.
“Hugh, I hope—I feel sure—that I’m shaking hands with the leader of the signal corps!”
And Alec’s remark was indeed true, for Lieutenant Denmead announced that evening that Hugh Hardin was appointed leader of the corps.
Thereafter, with Alec’s former hostility removed, there was not a scout in Pioneer Camp who did not congratulate Hugh with genuine pleasure,—for, when the history of the maneuvers was told, all felt that Hugh’s reward had been fairly won.
CHAPTER XI.
A MOUNTAIN ADVENTURE.
Early one morning in the following week, Hugh and Alec, moved by a spirit of newly cemented friendship, asked that they, attended by Indian Joe and accompanied by Billy Worth and Sam Winter, be permitted to make a trip on foot through the wilderness, to a mountain about five miles east of old Stormberg.
This request Lieutenant Denmead readily granted, after giving each of the four young “mountaineers,” as he called them, a physical examination, testing heart, lungs, muscle, etc. “It ought to be a rule in all camps,” said he, “that no boy whose heart is not first examined should attempt a mountain climb over a thousand feet, or a long march,—that is, no boy in his teens. You fellows, with the exception of Alec, are ‘sound in wind and limb.’”
“What’s the matter with me, sir?” queried Alec.
“How about that ankle of yours, my boy?”
“Oh, that’s all right, Chief! It’s quite strong again. I had forgotten all about it.”
“All right, then. But be careful. By the way, I think I’ll ask Rawson to go with you.”
“Fine!” “Great!” “Wish he would come!” the boys responded enthusiastically.
Accordingly, George Rawson joined the expedition that set forth bright and early next morning. Each member carried a haversack filled with provisions, in addition to the regular equipment for camping-out in fine weather.
The peak which they intended to climb was locally known as the Pinnacle. Higher than old Stormberg, it rose in the heart of the forest, and was approached from camp, first by a long-disused logging road that skirted the lower end of Pioneer Lake, then by trails and bridle-paths, and finally by a single trail that wound up its rocky sides. Though not remote from camp, it was nearly nightfall when the little party arrived at a farmer’s barn nestling at the foot of the mountain, and, as a reward for helping him with the last of the day’s “chores,” were allowed to sleep in his hayloft. Much as they preferred to sleep in the open, a heavy rain—which had begun suddenly during the last two hours of their march—forced them to seek the shelter of the barn.
The morrow dawned in a heavy fog, and the Scouts were astir early in anticipation of clear weather. After a breakfast of oatmeal cakes, hard-boiled eggs, and cereal coffee, Hugh and Billy approached Joe, who was packing the cooking outfit, and said, “Rawson says we can go ahead a little if you will show us the trail, Joe. He has climbed the Pinnacle before, and will follow later.”
Joe gave a grunt of assent, and the three strapped on their haversacks once more, left the barnyard, and struck out into the woods.
As they began to ascend the mountain the wreaths of fog floated higher and higher above them, until the sun came forth in full splendor and all the moist, dripping woods were bathed again in light. In a few minutes Hugh realized, with a thrill of excitement, that the slopes of the magic peak were actually under his feet! He stumbled frequently over the broken rocks, helping himself up with the aid of trees, saplings, and undergrowth. Billy, less lithe and agile than Hugh, found it more difficult to keep in Joe’s wake; and further, he was encumbered with a camera, which he had insisted on taking with him on this trip. How he managed to carry the thing along without smashing it, he could never afterward explain; but in the course of that day he got some remarkable photographs, and thereby added several points to the credit score of the Wolf Patrol.
Occasionally they were obliged to swing by their arms, like apes, from roots or branches projecting over the edge of some miniature precipice. Their faces were scratched by brambles, their hands cut by the sharp edges of rocks, and their clothing torn by the jagged limbs of broken pines and hemlocks.
It was after ten o’clock before they reached a broad ledge, where they paused to rest and wait for the others. And it was twilight again before the reunited party reached the summit.
Stunted evergreen trees covered the top of the mountain, but the weary Scouts found a comparatively open space in an angle of rocks on one side, a few yards down, and there they made a bed of pine twigs. Then, collecting a heap of dead branches, they soon had a roaring fire. On all sides lay the wilderness, a great dark gulf beneath them. From among the trees came the nocturnal cries of wild animals, the hoot of a great horned owl, and the soughing of the fitful wind in the pines. In an hour the moon rose and shed a faint illumination over the weird scene.
In the morning the wilderness was like a green ocean surrounding that island peak, even the sharp, spiky tops of trees blending softly in a light haze. After disposing of breakfast, the party started to descend the mountain on another side, attracted by a lake that they had noticed shining in the light of the moon. But unwittingly they chose the worst possible place for descent, and that, in spite of Joe’s general knowledge of the locality. In about an hour they found themselves involved in perpendicular cliffs and headlong pitches of the mountainside, which seemed to their inexperience truly frightful. At last they came out upon the dizzy brow of a precipice which was too smooth to afford any foothold.
The cliffs towering behind them seemed to forbid return, and they searched anxiously for a place where they dared attempt to descend.
“Look!” exclaimed Joe, at last, pointing to a dead pine which had fallen against the face of the precipice and remained leaning there. “We got to climb down that tree. Come.”
He crawled forward until half of his body was over the smooth ledge, then reaching down, he grasped the topmost branch of the leaning pine and swung himself over, landing on the trunk of the tree. After that it was easy to crawl along the trunk to its roots, which rested upon more level ground. The feat was not without peril, but it was the only way out of the difficulty. Each member of the party in turn followed Joe’s example, crawling, clinging, scrambling to safety. Then they looked back at the sheer cliff and rejoiced that they had had even this chance of escape.
Another danger, however, soon became evident. They had lost their way! Wandering in the intricacies of a “windfall,” they struggled desperately with a tangled mass of broken branches and uptorn roots. After spending the greater part of the forenoon in advancing perhaps half a mile, Sam climbed a tree, gave a searching look around, and announced that he had his bearings.
The half-breed climbed up, also, and surveyed the landscape with his keen black eyes.
“Right!” he grunted positively. “Sam guess right. Joe know Pioneer Lake.”
Nevertheless, when by slow stages they approached the lake, they found they still had to traverse broad swamps. At last, they came upon the backwoods trail which had grown familiar in many stalking games and signaling tests, and all their difficulties blended into the single one of tramping for an hour or two without food on a path that was wearisomely long, though it led out of the wilderness. Presently they emerged into the open, breaking into a cheer at the welcome sight of the council-fire of Pioneer Camp.
The “mountaineers” were quickly surrounded by a mob of curious boys and bombarded with eager questions. Rawson, however, demanded water and food for the hungry travelers first of all, and not until their exhausted comrades were amply refreshed did the other Scouts beg again to hear their experiences. Then Hugh and Alec, supplemented by Billy and Sam and endorsed by Rawson, told the story of their mountain climb. When it was finished, the council-fire had crumbled into ashes, and the last sparks had died out in the light of the stars.
Another day of camp-life was ended. As the boys fell asleep, they smiled with content at their lot, and wondered what new happenings awaited them in the Land of Tomorrow, at dawn to become another Today!
That there were new and strangely unforeseen experiences before them, proof now exists, for the record may be found in “The Boy Scouts of Pioneer Camp.”
Transcriber’s Notes
- Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public domain in the country of publication.
- Silently corrected palpable typos (including once exchanging the order of two entire lines); left non-standard spellings and dialect unchanged.
- Retained the probable typo “stertorious” for its portmanteau-word potential.
- In the text versions, delimited italics text in _underscores_ (the HTML version reproduces the font form of the printed book.)